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About CSS

The mission
of Citizens for Successful Schools is to develop ideas and engage
people to move education forward. We take Trenton Central High School
as a local example needing change. The same issues affect other schools
as well, and we believe answers here will generalize broadly. The founders of CSS have just published an valuable new book, which puts the issues discussed here in a readable, usable form.

This new book introduces the problems, the players, the possibilities in urban schools. If you are a concerned parent, educator, or taxpayer, read this book. It will help you see how you can do something to help save the lives of thousands of kids, and in the process help save our urban communities and our cherished principles of democracy and equality.

A Local Example

The dropout
rate at TCHS is a simple but powerful
measure of the problems students,
teachers, and administration face.

The figure shows a comparison
between high schools just 14 miles apart. In Montgomery nearly all
students stay in school and graduate. But in Trenton, over the four
years more than half of
students give up on their education, and thereby on their potential
future as successful citizens.
It may be tempting to
believe that what happens in Trenton compared with
nearby Montgomery school system is the result of a lack of money, but
this is not the case. The spending per-student in Trenton is $16,000,
while in Montgomery it is
$12,000. We need to understand better what the issues are that underlie
the extreme dropout rate at TCHS. This indicates a failing educational
system, and it has profound implications for both the students and the
citizens of New Jersey. It is time for a serious discussion of the problems and implications, and we will do this in a series of articles intended for newspapers such as the Trenton Times.

We will also look at answers
that come from schools in New Jersey and elsewhere. It is clear that the problems are not inevitable or insoluble, and many individuals and groups are thinking about paths to a better future. There are ways to
ensure that all students can succeed, even in disadvantaged
environments. The ideas and actions that have worked in other big
cities with similar demographics provide potential solutions for
Trenton.

A recent movie documents the human costs and the hard work that is needed to correct a troubling situation. The Cartel
is a tour through the politics and pressures of the educational system.
It focuses on New Jersey schools especially in the big cities, Newark,
Camden, Trenton, and looks at both tragic failures and rare but encouraging bright
lights of success.